In the Spirit of Malcolm and Robeson, Indict the U.S. at the U.N.

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"Malcolm's voice infused the Black Freedom Movement with an internationalist perspective."

It is a shameful indictment of American political culture that, even though the United Nations headquarters is physically located in the U.S., on the east side of Manhattan island, it might as well be in Sri Lanka or New Delhi when it comes to U.S. media attention. What the U.N. does is considered important news in most of the world, especially in the developing and formerly colonized world. But American media, much of it headquartered within walking distance of the United Nations, most often behaves as if the world body doesn't exist.

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"Many Americans don't know, or don't care, that international treaties to which the U.S. is a part have the force of law."

The American delegation to the U.N. will be even more discomforted on February 21st and 22nd, when the U.S. will be taken to task on its own domestic race relations. Many Americans don't know, or don't care, that international treaties to which the U.S. is a part have the force of law within the United States. One of those treaties is the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted by the U.S. in 1994. Yet this is only the second year that Washington has even bothered to issue a report to the U.N. on the state of race relations in the U.S. - a report that the U.S. Human Rights Network calls a "whitewash."

Many Americans conveniently forget - or just don't give a damn - that racial discrimination violates a host of international laws. It is fitting that the U.S. will be confronted with many of these violations on Thursday, February 21st, the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. It was Malcolm who insisted that what were then called "civil rights" were really "human rights" to which all people's of the world were entitled. In this, he picked up the banner waved by Paul Robeson and other African Americans of the Left, in the late 1940s, with their petition charging the United States with genocide against Black Americans. Malcolm's voice infused the Black Freedom Movement with an internationalist perspective; he called for African Americans to stand up as citizens of the world, rather than act like an isolated minority begging favors from a hostile domestic majority. Malcolm's legacy, and Paul Robeson's legacy, still challenge African Americans to grow up, to transcend Jim Crow politics, and to finally take their places on the liberation side of the world stage.

Commentary - Glenn Ford - Black Agenda